We now have two separate WWE shows for one simple reason – competition!
OK…the real reason is more than likely the increase in revenue that this kind of a move would make but for the purposes of our site, the ONLY reason is competition!
So why not look at the shows in the light of competition? Every week, we will take a quick look at the Raw and SmackDown Live episodes and assign a winner for each week.
Both shows came with fists-a-firing (if that’s a thing). Raw was tasked with setting the bar with the first show of the official New Era. The bar set was pretty high!
We got two huge moments that fans have been clamoring for for quite some time! After going through Rusev, Kevin Owens and Cesaro in a qualifying Fatal 4 Way match and then defeating “The Guy” Roman Reigns, Finn Balor won the opportunity to face Seth Rollins at SummerSlam for the new Universal Championship. Raw gave us the matchup that could very well have main envented WrestleMania right away.
Not only that, but we saw what was possibly the biggest moment in the Divas Revolution with fan-favorite Sasha Banks taking down Charlotte in an epic match. After months of confusing booking, Banks finally got her match and it paid dividends. The crowd reaction told the story.
The debut of SmackDown Live did what they could to reach the bar set by Raw. I’m not going to lie, I was close to giving up on Dolph Ziggler. He had been given chances – not necessarily an amount of chances that he deserved but chances nonetheless. With the influx of new and younger talent coming in, it seemed as though The Show-Off’s time had come and gone, much to the chagrin of most fans.
But after winning the six-pack challenge against John Cena, AJ Styles, Bray Wyatt, Baron Corbin and Apollo Crews, Ziggler will get another chance. The win sends him to a match at SummerSlam against champion Dean Ambrose for the WWE Championship. Dolph is given the biggest stage that he has been on to showcase what he has to offer – the question is can The Show Off show enough.
SmackDown Live did lose points though with the exclusion of American Alpha on the debut episode. Those that have closely followed NXT know that this team is indeed “Ready Willing and Gable” to make an impact on the main roster, it was pretty disappointing to know that we had to wait another week though.
A few of those points were brought back though with the announcement/debut of returning superstars Shelton Benjamin and Rhyno. The Manbeast provides solid veteran leadership for the locker room and Benjamin seems to fit in perfectly with the newer high-flying in-ring style that we are seeing today.
So, after taking everything into account, week 1 goes tooooooooooo … … …
CURRENT SCORE – RAW – 1 SMACKDOWN – 0
Call it a bit of bias, but I have been waiting to see Finn Balor on the main roster for a long time now! The fact that the Raw he debuts on is centered around him and leads to a dream championship match at SummerSlam is something that SmackDown Live just could not match.
The flagship show set the bar this week but SmackDown Live has the talent and potential to get on the scoreboard soon. Although with the anticipated return of Brock Lesnar already advertised for this Monday, SmackDown Live might have to wait a little bit for that first win.
SO WHAT DO YOU THINK? WHO WON WEEK 1? WHAT WAS THE BIGGEST MOMENT ON EACH SHOW? FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @FROM_THETOPROPE AND LET US KNOW!
